LETTERS for October 27 issue

October 27, 2011

I strongly urge you to have a public hearing in West Maui regarding the proposed development of Pulelehua. We are all working class residents that cannot attend a meeting at your chambers in Wailuku.

This is a huge development that will DEFINITELY impact our community.

You were elected to represent us no matter what district you live in. You need to hear our voices in West Maui for yourselves.

So, please defer this matter until we can be heard in West Maui - a meeting here PLEASE!

SU CAMPOS, Napili

MAHALO FOR SUPPORTING LAHAINALUNA PROGRAM

The Lahainaluna High School Community Based Instruction Program would like to thank the following supporters of our program in the 2010-11 school year: Stuart Farborough from Kaylee's Retirement Stables, Lahaina Post Office, Lahaina Marriott, Mala Restaurant, Nicole Bear, Pacific Whale Foundation, Maui Bowling Center, and Scott Soldwisch, LHS athletic director.

Part of the Community Based Instruction Program is to explore potential job sites in the Lahaina community. If you are interested in supporting this program, please contact Erik Jennings at 662-3979, extension 255.

ERIK JENNINGS

RULES OF THE ROAD SAVE LIVES

In the Oct. 6 issue, I saw a letter written by a junior in high school. To him I say: You must have been told a hundred times that you're too young to have an opinion about such matters as speed limits. Well, I'm an old, old guy by your standards, so I'm going to tell you that again.

You see, young man, speed limits are made to save lives and prevent most accidents. But, of course, you would disagree, and that's okay. I had a beautiful son of 30, the father of four children, who was killed in an accident, but it was their fault. He wasn't the driver but was in on the fun anyway. They overtook a car that was traveling too slowly (it was a 35 mph zone) for them, and the area was double solid lines. Yep, Olowalu.

Prior to this, while I was still working as a policeman, I had the experience of working an accident where five people were killed. A friend of mine was obviously driving very fast and slid sideways into the path of an oncoming car. Yep, again Olowalu - the 35 mph zone again. He was killed along with two of his friends who rode with him. Also killed was an elderly couple in the oncoming car.

More speed? I don't think so, young man.

Here on Maui and on the West Side, we travel about 25 miles to Wailuku and Kahului and then back for another 25 miles. Most of the highway's speed limit is 45 and 55. There are a few places where it drops to 35 - like Olowalu and from Lahainaluna Road to Aholo Road. The thinking of most sensible people is that you're only going to save a matter of minutes by speeding here. Is it worth your life to obey the rules? I hope so but will never know, will I?

But the thing is, you have a choice. When you finish high school next year, you can make your decision. If you still can't stand our speed limits, you have a choice, and I'll tell you what that is. Move back to where you came from! Good luck with that!

GORDON C. COCKETT, Lahaina

RECYCLING IS IMPORTANT

I am Cassidy Otto from Kaanapali. I attend Maui Preparatory Academy, and I am writing to you because our world has been failing when reusing or recycling comes up. I am writing to you because people all around the world near and far aren't recycling.

Why is recycling important to save Earth? Recycling is important to the world because it has a circulated system that brings the recycled materials in and mixes them together to have that same material into one, so companies are recycling and reusing. It is also important because it saves pollution. Since pollution is one of our main issues in the world, recycling can help this problem.

How does it help pollution? When recyclables are replaced as new materials during manufacturing, we forget the environmental destruction caused by mining for metal, drilling for petroleum and growing trees. Usually, there is always a degree of pollution made in any manufacturing system, including recycling, but production using recyclables is surprisingly less. When recycling paper, you help reduce air pollution by 74 percent and water pollution by 35 percent. When recycling cans, you help reduce air pollution by 95 percent and water pollution by 97 percent. How awesome is that?!

How can recycling influence and change the world? "Recycling not only can potentially save the Earth by reducing trash, but it influences people to recycle in non-conventional ways. My sister turned a bed sheet into reusable napkins. I have turned mailing tubes into a prop for a play." That is what my mom has said about it.

Not only does it save the Earth and reduce trash, but it influences people to reuse, reduce and recycle more - to take those recyclables to the recycling center again and again. I personally recycle, and it is a great feeling; just recycling a garbage bag of bottles, glass, aluminum cans and newspapers is a feeling that you don't want to lose.

Did you know that to understand the value of recycling, we must look at the entire life cycle of any product - from the extraction and processing of raw materials, to the manufacture and consumption of that product, and then to its final disposition. Also, recycling creates a closing-circle system where products are returned back to manufacturers for use in new products, which prevents the pollution and destruction that occurs when virgin materials like trees or materials are extracted from the Earth.

Lastly, I read on a website that every year we generate 230 million tons of waste. By recycling 30 percent of the waste, we save energy equal to 11.9 billion gallons of diesel fuel and greenhouse gas equal to taking 25 million cars off the road! For every one million tons of recycled materials, we save energy equal to 35,680,000 barrels of oil in aluminum materials; 460,000 barrels of oil in glass materials; 2,920,000 barrels of newspaper materials; 1,760,000 barrels of oil in office paper materials; 4,010,000 barrels of oil in mixed residential paper; 9,100,000 barrels of oil in PET (plastic) materials; and 8,870,000 barrels of oil in HDPE (plastic) materials. That is how much you can save by recycling.

Why am I writing this letter? I am writing this letter because recycling is a main part of our world. I don't want our world to come to an end, and everyone having to live on Mars for the rest of our lives, because Earth won't be able to survive with human beings depending on it. Recycling only takes 20 minutes of your day. It is that easy!!! I am passionate about this because I love to do this. It isn't that hard. Really! This is important to me and the world for you wonderful people. Please just spread the word.

CASSIDY OTTO

CONCERNS ABOUT HALLOWEEN REMAIN UNADDRESSED

A Maui front page read that merchants are pleased with the Halloween decision, as soon as the county decided it would be shutting down Front Street despite community opposition. One Front Street merchant said she is pleased that Front Street will be closed to ensure that Halloween will once again be a safe and fun event. She later admitted that as the Halloween events grew over the years and the crowds increased, "things got out of hand." She sent a plea to all and asked that people not misbehave, which has been one of the many problems that we have seen throughout the years.

Halloween is a festive time of trick-or-treat; it's about meeting your neighbors, your community, not in the business district. It's a time for family to walk the place they chose to raise their children and not a place of trickery and deceit, which have been the case before. In community events in the past, the Whalers Spree got totally out of control. It was a re-enactment of the sailors that came to shore only interested in two things: grog and women. It got so totally out of control that the community had to take drastic measures in shutting it down.

Where's the LahainaTown Action Committee? The silent partner in Halloween! One would think that this is a County of Maui event totally sponsored with monies from the general fund, for enforcement? Chamber of Commerce? What's their part in this? Or the Maui Visitors Bureau; stimulate whose economy?

Do the little people now have to sit idle and accept handouts by corporate greed and the ongoing genocide of a race of people who still are perpetual to the care-ship of our sense of place, which we are slowly losing touch with by allowing foreign perspectives to decide our customs and heritage by the wave of a pen? Our history and culture is not for sale and should not be used as a bargaining chip to divide our community. We understand that non-profits have to find ways to survive, but not at the cost of condoning to a history that has taken more out of our islands and has left the rubbish for all of us to clean up. Every year, this suffers our children, because we are responsible for the legacy we leave behind for them. And for the comment that was made by a Kalani Kahaiali'i in a Lahaina News letter, know your history before you throw up all over yourself, cuzin!

Rod Antone, the mayor's communications director, said the mayor had met with different organizations and listened to their concerns. When? He also stressed that "we don't want this to affect the residents that live there. We don't want people to be parking in front of their driveways." If you are coming, Alan, bring a traffic vest and really work for the people.

Antone advises that revelers should not be yelling or screaming or making a ruckus. This is an admittance of a problem that does not assure the community a safe and orderly environment. They are also claiming they've addressed "ALMOST" every concern the community has thought of.

We at Kuleana Ku'ikahi LLC, Na Kupuna O Maui, Na Makua O Maui, Na 'Aikane O Maui, Kahalawai O Honokohau, Hui Pono Ike Kanawai and Nakoa O Lahaina shall be monitoring this year's Halloween event to ensure the safety of our town. We will be on the lookout at all back street, dark alleyways and county parks away from the hotspot of Front Street, where all unlawful things occur during this time. Places where enforcement very seldom ventures, because of their management responsibilities of 30,000-plus Halloween revelers that will pace this town in search of mayhem.

Every year, we learn new traits of the good and the bad decisions made by our county officials. Let's hope they have exhausted all avenues of being good stewards, and let us hope we don't go totally Disney in this small town in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Good luck, Maui, for tomorrow will be a new day for awhile, then we go back to our pathetic way of life.